Sunday, May 31, 2015

From the wiles
of life that stretch us and seek to conform us to their image — in the face of
our resistance — we do well to be gentle. To be realistic. To be generous of
spirit to ourselves. To land in a second, and better a minute or two, of
stillness, in spite of the difficulties at hand.

Learning to live
our new lives now could be an anthem for life.

Learning’s the grandest
achievement of humility from whence we cannot go wrong.

Learning to live is a process
never perfected, which sends ripples of peace through us to our core of soul.
Never perfect and never expected to be perfect. Perfectly imperfect, indeed.
Learning to live is the acceptance of the many mistakes, failures and foibles
that intrude all over our pride. Humility is the better way. Say sorry. Prove
we understand. Make it right, if we can. If we cannot, promise to try better
next time. Seek forgiveness. It’s all we can do and it’s all anyone should
require of us.

Our new lives begin now, in
the picturesque harmony of brokenness that, in Christ, not only doesn’t ruin us,
it makes us the unconquerable warrior God knows we are.

Every day we
wake up a new creation capable of blessing God and others by being a blessing
just because we can be! Oh how good is life when we realise that we were given
a mind to overcome, and hearts to embody the passion to compel our mind.

Now is the
ordinance of hope for a brighter moment, yes, even now. Even in the hardship,
to take one’s poise and enjoy the matters of God that no one can ever know. Our
experience is ours, and the secrets of the Kingdom are dwelt in our hearts.

What cool relief
it is to know we can learn to live this new life now: that life starts again at
the flick of a switch — a decision to turn and go and love!

***

May it be to you that you are blessed in the heavenly realms
as you decide for joy.

May it be to you that you find hope from your soul’s
insistence on gratitude.

May thankfulness be your song as your hum a hymn.

And may the inspiration of the ancient’s be your inspiration
as they breathe old life — eternal life — into your new life.

Friday, May 29, 2015

“For though
we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.4 The weapons
we fight withare
not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, our weapons have divine powerto demolish
strongholds.5 We demolish
arguments and every pretentiousness that sets itself up against the knowledge
of God,and we take
captive every thought to make it obedientto Christ.6 And we have
real power to punish every act of evil’s disobedience.”

—
2 Corinthians 10:3-6 (NIV modified)

THE Apostle Paul
had more on his hands than invisible powers of evil. The Corinthian churches
had ways about them that effused the flesh and the world, not primarily
spiritual warfare. Indeed, Paul’s challenge was to fight a threefold sophistry —
a spiritual trinity — the spiritual person’s common enemies — evil, three-in-one
— with an abundantly more powerful threefold ministry of spiritual warfare.

The World, the
Flesh, and Satan are beaten by an approach to war that Paul calls us to in the
above passage. The steps are simple. They are ninefold (3 x 3).

1.We demolish
strongholds — which, for Paul, are presented as fraudulence and
arrogance, as presented in the flesh. When people are intentionally dishonest
to us and are arrogant about it, what do we do? We must find a way to demolish
the stronghold of their bitterness by grace — for grace will smash anything
through the most powerful thing in all eternity — love. But there are
strongholds we need to demolish, in Jesus’ name, that are from the world: habits,
greed, addictions, etc. There are also strongholds we must demolish that we can
never see; those temptations to sin from Satan. These latter two strongholds
are demolished by “taking every though captive…”

2.We rescue every
thought —
again, for Paul in his situation, these thoughts were presented as the
persecutions against him. Many times in our lives we have had people definitely
against us; bullies, people who were envious of us, even people who were afraid
of us. That’s why many of us have ended up at the very end of ourselves — broken,
confused, and started on a bad road. But we demolish every argument and
pretentiousness that sets itself up against the knowledge of God — that is,
every good thing — by taking captive the very destructive thoughts we have as a
consequence. It’s the same when the enemies of this world and Satan close in;
they always close in on our minds. We are courted by the world and we are seduced
by the Devil. This is why we are to train our awareness, by the coaching and
mentoring — the very wisdom — of those who’ve gone before us; those who got
through who will show us how to get through. We need to learn the skills of
taking thoughts captive — routinely, promptly, effectively. Others who have
learned these skills will teach us if we will fall under their guidance.

3.We
punish evil’s disobedience — Paul had to take issue with the Corinthians,
and he was doing so in his letter as it’s recorded for us. Paul was meek in
Christ and the Corinthians saw that as weakness. It wasn’t weakness, but
humility — the very noblest of virtues. Our concern is to punish not the
persons who do evil against us, but to punish the evil behind these persons. We
see that the people who do us wrong are motivated by fear or greed or
inadequacy. Maybe they are jealous. They think that offending us or even
abusing us will make us buckle. And to fight them at their own game would be to
not only defeat the purpose, but it would defeat us in their midst. We would
certainly buckle. The only way to punish evil’s disobedience against the
knowledge of God is to fight the way that evil cannot win — because it cannot
understand it. Evil is shrouded in fear and so it cannot conceive of love’s
grace. When we trust love as a response to fear or hate or jealousy or slander
we trust something that cannot be worn down or defeated. This works whether it’s
our flesh we are dealing with — we love ourselves with acceptance. It works
whether it’s the world we are dealing with — we love God and the things of God
more than the world that competes for our allegiance. It works whether it’s
Satan inciting his rage from within us — again, we remind ourselves that the
enemy is up to no good. We love ourselves through acceptance. We go gently. And
we get alongside others who will help; our mentors, good friends, counsellors,
confidants, and coaches.

***

A threefold
ministry of Spiritual warfare: 1) demolish enemy strongholds; 2) take captive
every thought; make it obedient to Christ; and 3) punish evil’s disobedience by
unconquerable love.

Thursday, May 28, 2015

PATRONAGE is a
role that has its nexus in the moment that a person or a couple or a group
feels more than adequately cared for. It’s a moment. It’s a moment because
people are prone to shift from a state of wellbeing into a state of need
without much warning, and quite unexpectedly. But that is the nature of someone
needing care. Most people needing such care need it intermittently, for a season.
They are not characterised in being overly needy; unless it pertains to caring
for an elderly parent or grandparent, or a relative with a disability. This
article is aimed primarily at the care of only emotional and spiritual needs.

If we are in a
situation of helping a person, or we help people, more generally, we will need
to attend to our own care needs — if we wish that our care might be available for
those who need it when they need it.

‘Caring for the
carer’ can become a rather tired and worn out cliché. But it is healthy licence
for some freedom related to contemplation, retreat, rejuvenation, and
replenishment.

Finding what
works for you and finding the time to get what you need; these are the
concurrent challenges that are faced. We then also need to ensure we take the
time when the time arrives. Too many of us have worked through a window of
opportunity — usually for good intents — only to find we used the time we
should have taken.

How we use the
time is important. Some of us enjoy ‘downloading’ with others, relationally.
Others will choose a good book. Others, again, choose to get some quiet time alone
in nature. Especially supercharged people will want to balance the needs of
other family.

The important
thing is noting the moment that you feel free. It might only be five minutes.
Sometimes we spend hours getting to that blissful five minute period — the climax
to reach. Strangely enough, even five minutes of breathing normally can inspire
a great deal of empowerment for the next interaction of care. Even better if we
can replicate this each day.

Such a time of
spiritual bliss, where the emotions are lifted into a smiling ether, is
palpable, if such a time is repeatable.

***

Feeling enabled to retreat and having the capacity to reflect
are what all carers need.

Our ability to help others is compromised if we don’t learn
to help ourselves.

There are notions of grief inter-latticed within the nuances
of acceptance that produce an interesting meld of healthy, yet resigned
loneliness in loss and grief.

We cannot help but be changed irrevocably by the death of our
loved ones. The loss of our infant son merely underscores how important his
life was to us. Yet everybody’s loss is equally mysterious. They are gone
forever from our sight and reach.

Our memories of loss, whilst they feel they can initially choke
us, will eventually and ultimately be our badges of gain and of growth and
achievement.

Such memories of loss can threaten to end life as it was—indeed,
this is often the case. For the afraid it’s time to take some refuge.

***

When death’s come close on by,

When loved ones become strangers,

When we breathe a solemn sigh,

Loss is tragic, we cannot deny.

Breath of life, given to hope,

Breath of life, with no strength to cope.

We miss this loved one, oh so we do,

But eternity’s gain is comprehensively true.

Not long now, it tarries not a spark,

Not long now, God will call us to light from dark.

***

We clearly have the same hope; to go our loved one’s way,
such that we will one day reunite with them.

We have no idea in the meantime what that transition will
look or feel like. We have no idea what is just over the horizon.

The healthy, resigned loneliness in loss and grief is the place
of unparalleled acceptance. We will never like the idea that we loved and lost,
but we can hope to reach a place where mention of it won’t do anything other
than nurture a sense of peace within us.

What cannot be changed will never be changed. There is a
sanctified dignity to that.

When we arrive in the place of the spirit where nothing can
floor us we have accepted something we can never change. It’s the best we can
do. God understands.

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

LONG ago I discovered there are two ways of living life
positively no matter the circumstances we find ourselves in — in plenty and in
want, in sickness and in health, for better and for poorer.

These two ways are hence:

1.Live
as if there is no tomorrow. In other words, we would live as if we would
die this very day — today! Now for a secular person that might mean living it
up, spending up big, doing every sordid thing possible. But that’s not how to
live if you believe there is a life beyond this life. We might use our final
hours to say our appropriate goodbyes, ‘I love you’ to loved ones, and to
forgive all the grudges that remain.

2.Live
as if today is the start of the rest of our lives.
This way we put whatever has held us back in the past behind us. We move ahead
unrestrained and unconstrained into a future replete with blessings of
relational treasure. A future with a vision for spiritual prosperity.

The criticisms of the first method are few, if we take the
latter attitude — eyes focused on eternity. The criticisms of the second method
are also few, if we honestly repent of past transgressions against others.
Hopefully we are prepared to live in the light only of eternity.

If we live as if there is no tomorrow, we are not plagued by
fear for the future. If we live as if today was the start of the rest of our
lives, we depart from guilt and shame for the past.

If we integrate both these we have the solution to most of
our problems — if, indeed, the past or the future are problematic for us in any
way.

Living as if there were no tomorrow, yet, living as if life
starts from today, motivates us to make the most of the present.

We are neither hemmed in by fear nor guilt or shame. We take
the present moment just as it’s presented — so totally uninvolved with emotion
one way or the other.

Living for today and living as if life starts today is living
grounded in the present.

Nothing can harm us if we are so dedicated to making this
moment work. Nothing can disempower us if what was behind is firmly behind, and
if what is ahead is left ahead.

Live for today, yet in light of eternity. Life starts today,
yet don’t forget it may end today, too.

Monday, May 25, 2015

WHILST those who
experience grief are vulnerable, grief, in and of itself, isn’t set on keeping
us vulnerable. There is a cool irony — a paradox of the ages — as, with grief, comes
strength.

Facing that
terrible existential loneliness — living as if we weren’t — leaves us, at least
in our thoughts, backwashed and driven to escape. But the loneliness, when it’s
fully felt, sanctifies us and grows us. We are found more intimate with our
inner selves in accepting a mystery — a phenomenon that cannot ever now be
changed.

Psychodynamically,
there is something going on within the fissures of our emotional systems at a
soul level. Deep calls to deep and only in the depths is there an answer.

Such a product
is this: for the depths endured there is a cosmic compensation — a divine
restitution that will serve us well. The grief is an existential phenomenon,
but we have been forever won to the magic and mystery of the unfathomable.
Somehow, the prospect of never knowing, of coming to the end of ourselves,
teaches us a lot about life and a lot about God. We come to accept that our
happiness is secondary, and we learn also the irony: when our needs are secondary
in our reflections with God our contentment then is primary, and only then. We
must give up what we cannot keep to gain what we cannot lose.

Out of the
backdrop of an existence that is purgatory, we learn the simpler things of life
that have the profoundest importance. We no longer sweat the small stuff. Everything
of earth is fleeting; like smoke through a keyhole.

A grief
encountered that made us well also makes us better. Not only is the present
healed, the future bristles with possibility and the past has double meaning. A
grief endured really does help us know what is important in life, and it is
hardly the easy lessons that prove most valuable. Treasured acquisitions
require hearty tussles!

***

Grief is at once an existential challenge that floors the
best of us. Grief is also a psychoanalytic calamity, but with an incentivised
driver; the purpose for going through hell is to keep going.

Grief will take us through intense feelings of pain for a
purpose; to re-establish (or maybe establish) the bonds of intimacy which are
borne of attachment.

Proper adjustment through grief is forwards and backwards.
Existence comes to be scary, but psychodynamically we are never closer to a
personal revival than when suffering comes.

Sunday, May 24, 2015

Grace. One word. What a flourishing concept. An inexhaustible
quality. The answer to every conflict. The word we have in assimilating a
mystery.

Grace walks in simplicity.

Our postmodern existence pushes us irrepressibly into the realm
of complexity — just to keep up. But grace is in simplicity. When we take the
power upon us to simplify we overcome. Grace is the ever-present reminder.
Simplicity is eternally on the horizon, and reachable. Simplicity has the
majesty of wisdom about her. Every important thing is ordered. Every
unimportant thing is relegated. It is such a pity that we place such a huge
stock in unimportant things. We can do better. Walk in simplicity.

Grace turns away from all appearance of evil.

Holiness is such an ordination of the embodiment of grace we can
hardly separate them. To be full of grace is to be one, and at the same time,
with holiness. To be one with holiness is to be one with God. To act this way —
without thought — is to be gifted in the heavens whilst here on earth. Grace in
us teaches us to become acutely and viscerally aware of even the appearance of
evil. Aversion is our implicit response.

Grace offers no deceits.

There are no lies in grace. Therefore, as we act gracefully we
stop short of offering opinions and answers that have a surety about them that
we cannot, and can never, fully know. When we know the truth about our inherent
deceitfulness, we begin to understand that even as Christians we shoot
ourselves in the foot many times. Silence is many times more appropriate than
speaking. Listening is much more blessed than speaking.

Grace does all purely for God.

Grace has no motive for action or inaction other than to do
the will of God. When we actually mean what we say — “Use my whole life, Lord,
any way You want” — God will honour our prayer. Then grace becomes us if we are
exigent. If it is impressed upon us we will do only what God wants us to do —
what we want is no longer important. We trust God, wholeheartedly, to provide.
And he does.

***

We are great in the greatness of God. And such a greatness
should always be enough.

Friday, May 22, 2015

Too often we find ourselves thinking that God doesn’t answer our
prayers or that when he does answer us we are told, “No!”

What about the prayers we pray that are sincerely Christlike
prayers:

“Father, forgive them,
for they do not know what they are doing?”They do not know what they are doing when they infringe against
us; they may not see any fault their side of things, nor the repentance needed,
nor the reparation to be made. But when we pray, “Father, forgive them, for
they do not know what they are doing (against us)” we are praying a Christlike
prayer. God will honour that prayer. He will forgive them. And we ourselves are
glorifying God, which is all that matters.

What about when we pray, “Lord, I am truly committing everything
unto you. Bring whatever before me, and I will do it.” God will honour that
prayer and there may be something horribly testing that might come our way. It’s
a God-honouring and Christlike prayer, “Not my will, Father, but your will be done.”We will need to be ready for any possibility that
life might pass our way — and we truly don’t know the half of it. Yet, it is to
God’s glory that we can even utter such a beautiful prayer of godly personification.

When
we pray our prayers for patience and strength and wisdom, God will give us
opportunities to show patience that will probably anger us, and he will bring
us to weakness so we rely on his strength, and we will be pushed to folly so we
can learn true wisdom. God is not sadistic, but he takes our growth seriously.
There is no easy ground in growth. Each inch must be taken through monumental struggle.

All
discipleship prayers can be expected to be answered in the affirmative.

God
will answer them with a resounding “Yes!” all the time — if he discerns we are
very serious about them. If we are just playing with God we can expect no
prayer to be heard.

When
we are serious in our prayer, and our prayer is set in the context of changing
us, God will assist. God will answer. And he will not tarry.

There
are certain prayers God answers with a “Yes!” every time. They are the very
serious prayers. They are the prayers we pray for our own growth. They are
prayers that glorify God.

We
should pray seriously, for our growth, and to the ends of God’s glorification.
And that’s all. God will answer us “Yes!” each and every time.

Thursday, May 21, 2015

THINGS we have
no idea about are all around us — things we have yet not experienced.

Because we are
so wound up in the things of this world we lose sight of the wonder just over
the horizon that we might otherwise see.

Many of us use
what we have with no thought for the future. Yet, there is that still small
voice in us saying, “Stop it, already… get down, and understand me.”

Many of us have
resigned ourselves to the sadness in our sadder days instead of taking God
there with us into the resonances of eternity in every true thing. Maybe God is
showing us something we have never seen before. Openness accedes to surrender
and through surrender is peace.

Many of us parachute
into our daily existence, delaying the deployment of our main chute in favour
of ripping rampantly at our escape chute. There is too much rush and hurry. Too
much anxiety. Too much panic. Not enough space, joy, or hope.

Many of us wait
not-so-patiently for our time off, without making the most of our time on.
There are blessings to be had here, now, in the midst of the strains of life.
Think laterally. Think like God.

Many of us have
decided what we will do and we stubbornly stick to the plan, even when it’s
clear it’s not working. Many of us, also, have no plan at all, and there is
winsome wastage in knowing there is a choice to be made, yet we wait and wait
and wait without committing to something.

Many of us are
out in the rain without our umbrella, raincoat, or galoshes. Just as many of us
are inside, dry and safe, fully adorned for a hailstorm. Being safe is
superfluous if there is no danger. Taking risks is foolish if hazards are all
about.

Many of us never
realise the rainbow immediately behind us. We don’t think to turn and look and
be blessed. We don’t look for the rainbow. But rainbows are everywhere,
eternally.

As consistently
as the sun sets and then hours later it rises again we have junctures of joy,
happiness, bliss, and delight all around us — even intermittently in grief and
concern and weariness.

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

This is a simple
article to tuck away for one of those times we all have when we find we cannot
go on.

Don’t Give Up…

When emotions seem all too wrong,

And feelings are all too strong,

When issues have come to grate,

And there’s a very real sense of hate.

When we’ve no way to steady or hold on,

And it’s all taking far too long,

When we richly need to create,

And instead there’s a perilous fate.

Don’t give up.

When things get far too deep,

And we cannot afford any longer to keep,

When we richly need renewal,

And we worry we haven’t the fuel.

When the deluge begins to inwardly seep,

And we do not like what we reap,

When we recognise life is a duel,

And that many outcomes are cruel.

Don’t give up.

When we know we haven’t the space,

And we can no longer afford the chase,

When we can’t even hope to get through,

And we’re overwhelmed in feeling blue.

When horror fills our face,

And we cannot help count the waste,

When our capacities are all too few,

And we hope still ever to hold lovingly true.

Don’t give up.

I am easily
overwhelmed. Feelings of giving up frequent the mind. But I’ve found these
emotional lapses into hopelessness go as quickly as they come. And the sense
for resignation that I carry everywhere now never entirely shuts God out.

We all face
crises at the least expected junctures of life, and when God finally has us ‘weak’
then he is able to bring us to a more adequate and speedy surrender. To be ‘weak’
serves God’s purpose. He knows we are never stronger nor safer than when we
rely on him.

Giving up is
inevitable. We will all give up. We will all try on sackcloth and live for many
trials in the ashes.

But the time
comes for getting back up and dusting ourselves off a little once our self-pity
is exhausted. This is the moment not to harden our hearts as mentioned in Psalm
95.

Don’t give up,
not ultimately. Though we are excused if we do give in for a time, we are not
blessed by God nor anyone when we stick to our stubbornness.

We have strength
to get through — and it is safely God’s strength that prevails.